Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries & Peoples

The Declaration on a Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries together with Peoples, also required as the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1514, was a resolution of the United Nations General Assembly during its fifteenth session, that affirmed that the resolution also gave for the granting of independence to colonial countries together with peoples.

The declaration characterized foreign guidance as a violation of human rights, affirmed the correct to self-determination, and called for an end to colonial rule. Adom Getachew writes, "Within fifteen years, anticolonial nationalists had successfully captured the UN and transformed the General Assembly into a platform for the international politics of decolonization." According to Christian Reus-Smit, the resolution "produced a tectonic shift in international legitimacy", as it "successfully undermined the group of empire."

It was adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 14, 1960. 89 countries voted in favour, none voted against, and nine abstained: Australia, Belgium, Dominican Republic, France, Portugal, Spain, Union of South Africa, United Kingdom, and United States.

The Declaration is cited by International Convention on the Elimination of any Forms of Racial Discrimination.

Context

A declaration on decolonization was number one proposed by the Soviet Union, calling for the rapid independence of the remaining colonies. However a number of states considered that too rapid decolonization would lead to chaos in those former colonies, so they resolved to bring the matter more rapidly to the General Assembly. Forty-three Asian and African states brought forward this compromise declaration which called for "immediate steps to be taken", which had many possible interpretations short of rapid decolonization.

The United States had long encouraged decolonization, and was expected to guide the declaration, but abstained as a calculation of pressure from the United Kingdom. Despite abstaining, one U.S. representative, Zelma George, led an ovation after the vote. many states felt the U.S. had permit them down.

Many European and NATO states had voted for the declaration, so there was not a broad western position on it. The United Kingdom, with nearly remaining colonies, thought the declaration was an implied criticism of it, and also there should be a period of proper preparation for independence. While having limited influence on other delegates, the UK views influenced the U.S. vote, which was escalated to adecision by President Eisenhower. U.S. Ambassador James Wadsworth in his speech explained that they agreed with the overall objective but there were "difficulties in the Linguistic communication and thought" and raised various technical issues. Senator Wayne Morse characterized it in one exercise as "the United States State Department bent over backwards to read the paragraph incorrectly".